Run your railway, not your software.

DCC Box is train control for DCC layouts that you can pick up in minutes. Pick a train, pick a route, press Go: it sets the points and signals, drives the train and stops it at the end. When you want more, there's plenty of power under the bonnet.

  • Tablets and phones are the control panel
  • Nothing to install on them
  • Made to run on a Raspberry Pi
See what it does

Easy to pick up

Three steps from the box to driving

No addresses to remember and no key sequences to learn. You work with trains by name and picture; DCC Box looks after the numbers.

Read your loco

Put it on the programming track and press Read loco. DCC Box finds its address and decoder for you.

Give it a name and a picture

Pick its picture straight from the maker's catalogue (Hornby, Bachmann, Accurascale, Dapol, Heljan, Peco or Rapido), or use your own photo.

Drive it

Choose it by its picture and drive: speed, direction, lights and sounds. Or send it along a route and let DCC Box do the tedious parts.

What it does

Everything a layout needs, nothing it doesn't

You stay in charge. DCC Box handles the points, the direction and the speed, and you watch the layout and decide. It's interactive, not just an exhibit.

Drive

A throttle made for fingers: a big speed slider, direction, and every function key labelled with what it does. Whistles sound for as long as you hold them, like a real cord.

Layout and routes

Draw your track, then press Go. The route's points and signals are set in order, the train is driven and stopped when it arrives. Point protection keeps a set route's points where they are.

Programmer

Change a loco's address or its starting speed, acceleration and braking with sliders instead of CV numbers. Every CV is backed up, and the loco on the track is checked before anything is written.

Roster

All your locos in one place, with pictures, types and what their keys do. Search it, sort it, and filter by diesel, steam, electric or multiple unit.

Shared setups

Share a loco's setup with the DCC Box community, and use and rate other people's. Add a new loco and DCC Box offers any setups shared for that model, best rated first.

STOP ALL

Always one tap away. It cuts track power so every train stops dead, and START brings the power back with every loco still at a standstill.

DCC Station

Live readings from your command station: track power, currents, voltages and temperature, and what it is reporting.

Recording mode COMING

Press Record and operate as normal, from DCC Box or your handheld. Every point and speed change becomes a named route you can play back and edit.

Power under the bonnet

Simple on the surface, serious underneath

  • Built for no lag. Commands go straight to the command station; nothing queues behind a slow job.
  • Learns your layout. Press Learn and put a train on a section, or throw a point from your handheld, and DCC Box finds the detector or address itself.
  • Any kind of occupancy detection. R-Bus, LocoNet and CAN detectors all reach it.
  • Every screen at once. Any number of tablets and phones, all live, all in step with the handheld.
  • Small and self-contained. One program and one data file, made to run on a Raspberry Pi or a Windows PC, with nothing else to install.

Your command station

Built with the YaMoRC YD7010

DCC Box is developed and tested with the YaMoRC YD7010, and talks to it the way network apps talk to a Z21: over the Z21 LAN protocol on your own WiFi. Other stations that speak the same protocol should work too.